The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-05-05
BILL ARP'S LETTER.
He Thinks There is No suoh Thing as the
HNew South"

BILL ARP'S LETTER.
He Thinks There is No suoh Thing as the
11New South"
The "old South" is not dead by a long
shot, and I am proud Of it. Just let
anybody come out with fling at her aud
her friends come out like hornets from a
nest. Professor Tillett, of the Wander
bilt University, has been ventilatng his
sophomoric opinions in the Century, and
belittleing the grand old gentlemen OF
the olden time as dependent idlers" and
gentlemen idlers," aud says they were
little more than "overseers of the blacks"
He asserts that "all our advancement in
industry and prosperity, and education,
and literature, and morals, and religion
ia due to the emancipation of the white
man from his bondage to idleuess, which
is inseparable from the ownership OF
slaves"
I don't know who this Professor is, nor
where he was born, but the spirit of his
article is a foul SANDER upon the old
South. he either knew nothing about
her or he is just writing for buncombe.
Just such tissue of misconception and
misrepresentation vas never gotten to-
gether-not even by Cable.
The Christian Advocate, of Nashville,
seems to be intensely disgusted, and says.
"Is it all new? Was there no man
hood until now? We're the great names
that we revered only the creatures Of
fancy-the myths that appear in the
early history of all barbarous people?
Were Washington and Jefferson and
Madison mere creatures of mythologic
age. Were Jackson, and Clay, and Cal
houu, and Benton, and Macon, and Polk,
and Bell, and Stephens, and Crittenden
the demi.gods of q prehistoric race F?
Is it a delusion that Taylor, and Hous-
ton, and Crockett, and Travis, and Lee,
and Jackson, and Sidney Johnston, and
Stuart, and Morgan, and Forrest be.
longed to the old South? Who are the
men that now lead the new South, but
the men who led the old South? Who
represent us in the !halls of Congress,
and who administer our State Govern
meuts Who run our railways, and fac
tories, aud furnaces, and educational in.
stitutions? In a word, what is there
that is good in the new South that was
not rooted in the old South?"
Then the Christian Inder takes it up
and says:
"We belong to the new South and hope
to keep abreast of her in all her progress
in WHAT'S good. But we also belong to
the old South and are proud of her his.
tory. We acknowledge our present as
the offspring of our past and not of some
body else's past. What there is good in
US is not of Puritan origin. The Puri-
trns are welcome to their own glory, but
they shall not appropriate ours. We
shall transmit to our posterity what we
received from our forefathers-the his
tory, traditions, character and blood Of
the cavalier"
But the most elaborate and admirable
reply to Professor Tillett comes from DR..
B. F. Ward, in the Mississippi Clarion.
1t is grand, it is eloquent and convincing.
1t is worthy to be preserved in every
scrap book. It swells the heart of the
true Southerner with pride. He reads it
and feels good and reads it again. He
says in the outset that ''the professor is
skirmishiDg to bring himself within the
scope of the gale which has recently
given such graceful swell to the sails of
Mr. Grady, but unfortunately his zeal is
not tempered with the vein Of native
loyalty which tingles through the elo.
quence of Georgia's gifted and popular
editor"
He says in his summing up for period
of 64 years, from 1889 to 1853, the South
furnished eight Presidents whose terms
covered 50 years. She furnished four.
teen Secretaries of State, eleven Secreta.
ries of War, thirty.nine Presidents of the
Senate, thirty.one Speakers Of the House,
two Chief Justices of great eminence,
twenty nine Associate Justices, twenty
one Attorney Generals and ninety nine
ministers to foreign countries.
There is no new South. The term is a
misnomer and a myth. 1t is simply a
phrase costume in which old prejudices
masquerade through modern prints seek.
ing to persert the education of Southern
children into the convictions that their
ancestors, if not criminal, were little
more than race of idlers, blunderers,
blockheads and failures. The literature
left by our statesmen will stand as monu.
ments of wisdom and models of classical
lore. In all the departments of govern.
ment, in law, literature and science,
while the South has boasted of no great
army Of writers, she has furnished the
minds productive of the grandest results
to the country and the world. \
When a prolific little animal, vain Of
her progeny, twitted the lioness for nurs.
| ing only one, the noble beast replied
eyes, only one-but it is lion.'
DR.. Ward closes his splendid defense
by saying:
"Does this order of men spring from
race of idlers whose energies have been
emasculated by the curse of slavery. X